On Directing Film - David Mamet
I had a pleasure to read this very short book(only 100 pages !)
Most of this book is rewritten lectures he gave to film students. As such, most of it is dialogue, or monologue as it feels a lot of times.
Here you can find my notes, which are excerpts from the book itself.
With this, and most books that will follow, the excerpts will be quoted themselves, and annotated with the page number you can find it on.
‘’Georgi Tovstonogov, who writes that a director may fall into one of the deepest pits by rushing immediately to visual or pictorial solutions. ‘’ - xiv
‘’I one understands what the scene means, and stages that, Mr. Tovstonogov was saying, one will be doing one’s job for both the author and the viewer.’’ - xiv
‘’This concept was also stated by Hemingway as, ‘’ Write the story, take out all the good lines, and see if it still works.’’ - xiv
‘’A good writer gets better only by learning to cut, to remove the ornamental, the descriptive, the narrative, and especially the deeply felt and meaningful. What remains ? The story remains. What is the story ? The story is the essential progression of incidents that occur to the hero in pursuit of his one goal.’’ - xv
‘’There’s another way to make a movie, which is the way Eisenstein suggested a movie should be made. This method has nothing to do with following the protagonist around but rather is a succession of images juxtaposed so that the contrast between these images moves the story forward in the mind of the audience. - 2
‘’First the shot: it’s the juxtaposition of the shots that moves the film forward. The shots make up the scene. The scene is a formal essay. It is a small film. It is, one might say, a documentary’’ - 3
‘’The audience requires not information but drama’’ - 4
‘’The work on the set is simply to record what has been chosen to be recorded. It is the plan that makes the movie’’ - 5
‘’The purpose of technique is to free the unconscious. If you follow the rules ploddingly, they will allow your unconscious to be free. That’s true creativity. If not, you will be fettered by your conscious mind. Because the conscious mind always wants to be liked and wants to be interesting. The conscious mind is going to suggest the obvious, the cliché, because these things offer the security of having succeeded in the past. ‘’ - 6
‘’The images in a dream are vastly varied and magnificently interesting. And most of them are uninflected. It is their juxtaposition that gives the dream its strength. The terror and beauty of the dream come from the connection of previously unrelated mundanities of life. ‘’ - 6
‘’The dream and the film are the juxtaposition of images in order to answer a question.’’ - 7
‘’As Stanislavsky told us, we shouldn’t shy away from things just because they are clichés. On the other hand, maybe we can do better.’’ - 17
‘’This is the kiss rule. K.I.S.S. Keep it simple, stupid.’’ - 20
‘’As William of Occam told us, when we have two theories, each of which adequately describes a phenomenon, always pick the simpler.’’ - 21
‘’You have to know what the protagonist wants because that’s what the film is about. But you don’t have to take a picture of it.’’ - 22
‘’When you use the words ‘’just’,’’ ‘’kind of,’’ and sort of,’’ you’re diluting the story. The shots shouldn’t be just, kind of, or sort of anything. They should be straightforward, as straightforward as first three shots in the movie.’’ - 24
‘’Tell the story in cuts’’ - 25
‘’If you have the time, as we do now, you compare your idea to the objective, and as the good philosophers we are, as followers of the ways of both the pen and the sword, we choose the way that is closer to the objective, discarding that which is merely cute or interesting, and certainly discarding that which has a ‘’deep personal meaning’’ for us.’’ - 27
‘’Get into the scene late, get out of the scene early, tell the story in the cut. It’s important to remember that it is not the dramatist’s task to create confrontation or chaos but, rather, to create order. Start with the disordering event, and let the beat be about attempt to restore order.’’ - 28
‘’In The Uses of Enchantement, Bruno Bettelheim says of fairy tales the same thing Alfred Hitchcock said about thrillers: That the less the hero of the play is inflected, identified, and characterised, the more we will endow him with our own internal meaning - the more we will identify with him -- which is to say the more we will be assured that we are that hero.’’ - 38
‘’The job of the film director is to tell the story through the juxtaposition of uninflected images - because that is the essential nature of the medium. - 60
‘’The nail doesn’t have to look like a house; it is not a house. It is a nail. To do the work of the nail, it has to look like a nail.’’ - 68
‘’Dumbo is an example of a perfect movie. Cartoons are very good to watch - are much better to watch, for people who want to direct, than movies’’ - 80
‘’Any good drama takes us deeper and deeper to a resolution that is both surprising and inevitable.’’ - 95
‘’As Leadbelly says about the blues, he says in the first verse use a knife to cut bread, and in the second verse use a knife to shave, and in the third verse use it to kill your unfaithful girlfriend. It’s the same knife, but the stakes change, which is exactly the way a play or movie is structured. You don’t want to use the knife in the first verse to cut bread and in the second verse use it to cut cheese. We already know it can cut bread. What else can it do ?’’ - 97
x
Most of this book is rewritten lectures he gave to film students. As such, most of it is dialogue, or monologue as it feels a lot of times.
Here you can find my notes, which are excerpts from the book itself.
With this, and most books that will follow, the excerpts will be quoted themselves, and annotated with the page number you can find it on.
‘’Georgi Tovstonogov, who writes that a director may fall into one of the deepest pits by rushing immediately to visual or pictorial solutions. ‘’ - xiv
‘’I one understands what the scene means, and stages that, Mr. Tovstonogov was saying, one will be doing one’s job for both the author and the viewer.’’ - xiv
‘’This concept was also stated by Hemingway as, ‘’ Write the story, take out all the good lines, and see if it still works.’’ - xiv
‘’A good writer gets better only by learning to cut, to remove the ornamental, the descriptive, the narrative, and especially the deeply felt and meaningful. What remains ? The story remains. What is the story ? The story is the essential progression of incidents that occur to the hero in pursuit of his one goal.’’ - xv
‘’There’s another way to make a movie, which is the way Eisenstein suggested a movie should be made. This method has nothing to do with following the protagonist around but rather is a succession of images juxtaposed so that the contrast between these images moves the story forward in the mind of the audience. - 2
‘’First the shot: it’s the juxtaposition of the shots that moves the film forward. The shots make up the scene. The scene is a formal essay. It is a small film. It is, one might say, a documentary’’ - 3
‘’The audience requires not information but drama’’ - 4
‘’The work on the set is simply to record what has been chosen to be recorded. It is the plan that makes the movie’’ - 5
‘’The purpose of technique is to free the unconscious. If you follow the rules ploddingly, they will allow your unconscious to be free. That’s true creativity. If not, you will be fettered by your conscious mind. Because the conscious mind always wants to be liked and wants to be interesting. The conscious mind is going to suggest the obvious, the cliché, because these things offer the security of having succeeded in the past. ‘’ - 6
‘’The images in a dream are vastly varied and magnificently interesting. And most of them are uninflected. It is their juxtaposition that gives the dream its strength. The terror and beauty of the dream come from the connection of previously unrelated mundanities of life. ‘’ - 6
‘’The dream and the film are the juxtaposition of images in order to answer a question.’’ - 7
‘’As Stanislavsky told us, we shouldn’t shy away from things just because they are clichés. On the other hand, maybe we can do better.’’ - 17
‘’This is the kiss rule. K.I.S.S. Keep it simple, stupid.’’ - 20
‘’As William of Occam told us, when we have two theories, each of which adequately describes a phenomenon, always pick the simpler.’’ - 21
‘’You have to know what the protagonist wants because that’s what the film is about. But you don’t have to take a picture of it.’’ - 22
‘’When you use the words ‘’just’,’’ ‘’kind of,’’ and sort of,’’ you’re diluting the story. The shots shouldn’t be just, kind of, or sort of anything. They should be straightforward, as straightforward as first three shots in the movie.’’ - 24
‘’Tell the story in cuts’’ - 25
‘’If you have the time, as we do now, you compare your idea to the objective, and as the good philosophers we are, as followers of the ways of both the pen and the sword, we choose the way that is closer to the objective, discarding that which is merely cute or interesting, and certainly discarding that which has a ‘’deep personal meaning’’ for us.’’ - 27
‘’Get into the scene late, get out of the scene early, tell the story in the cut. It’s important to remember that it is not the dramatist’s task to create confrontation or chaos but, rather, to create order. Start with the disordering event, and let the beat be about attempt to restore order.’’ - 28
‘’In The Uses of Enchantement, Bruno Bettelheim says of fairy tales the same thing Alfred Hitchcock said about thrillers: That the less the hero of the play is inflected, identified, and characterised, the more we will endow him with our own internal meaning - the more we will identify with him -- which is to say the more we will be assured that we are that hero.’’ - 38
‘’The job of the film director is to tell the story through the juxtaposition of uninflected images - because that is the essential nature of the medium. - 60
‘’The nail doesn’t have to look like a house; it is not a house. It is a nail. To do the work of the nail, it has to look like a nail.’’ - 68
‘’Dumbo is an example of a perfect movie. Cartoons are very good to watch - are much better to watch, for people who want to direct, than movies’’ - 80
‘’Any good drama takes us deeper and deeper to a resolution that is both surprising and inevitable.’’ - 95
‘’As Leadbelly says about the blues, he says in the first verse use a knife to cut bread, and in the second verse use a knife to shave, and in the third verse use it to kill your unfaithful girlfriend. It’s the same knife, but the stakes change, which is exactly the way a play or movie is structured. You don’t want to use the knife in the first verse to cut bread and in the second verse use it to cut cheese. We already know it can cut bread. What else can it do ?’’ - 97
x
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